Wednesday, January 29, 2014

I’ve
always liked Groundhog Day. I am sure a lot has to do with the movie. When I was 14 and 15 years old, I was
beginning to develop a relationship with my new family. My dad got remarried quickly after the divorce,
and I met Danny and David. They were my step mom’s nephews. I was barely starting high school and they
were close to finishing it. Everything about
them was cool. I was like a little dude
following them around, soaking up everything they did. At that point Groundhog Day had come out and David and Danny loved it. And since I did whatever they thought was cool,
I fell in love with this movie.

Groundhog
Day--the movie in itself embraced an odd concept.It was a story where Bill Murray gets
opportunity after opportunity to fix his arrogant and selfish ways. If you haven’t seen the movie, the time frame
involves the same day being repeated over and over again. Bill’s character wakes up time and time again
to the same day--a day he didn’t really like. Immediately he begins to be angry, and to continue
his selfish and rude behavior to the people around him. But after that behavior gets him nowhere, he
decides to care for people, believing that tomorrow they will not remember it. An unusual piece of wisdom:“Love those even though they will never
remember it.”

This is odd because we tend to thrive
in our sinful natures of doing what is good for us. We look for opportunities to make ourselves
look good. We rely on the fact that what
we did yesterday will be remembered. If
we were to just Love 1, not expecting anything back, what would that look like?
Honestly, I cared for David and Danny,
but it was completely selfish; it was about learning how to be cool like them. Do I know where they are today? No, of course not. Was I annoying to them at some points? Yes, absolutely! Did I worry about their opinions? Yes, I was completely consumed with their
opinions of me. This is the wisdom of
the world. We function in this self-consumed
nature that looks out and often Loves 1 based upon what we receive back.

Since 2000, the groundhog has seen
his shadow every year but two. (Here’s
hoping for an early spring!) And honestly, most times it has nothing to do with
what really happens. It seems like a
silly holiday, and it seems odd that we celebrate it. But maybe it is more like
how God operates. Human wisdom becomes obsolete,
but His way of leading His people is unique. He is more into the celebration of life and
how He revives His people, as opposed to something we can get from groundhogs
or people. Hear me out; in human logic
the goal of Groundhog Day is to have
less winter. But in the world of Christ
all life and seasons are to be celebrated. It is the reason He would take such a cruel
punishment to rescue us. Maybe the
groundhog is onto something.It may be less
about his prediction and more about the fact that the sun sometimes shows him
his shadow on February 2nd and sometimes it doesn’t. But that’s neither
here nor there. God has come to rescue
us and give us life that is not dependent on animal or human predictions. That is against our human wisdom, and we thank
the Lord, because all too often, we are driven by our selfish natures.

Thursday, January 23, 2014

I
remember the quotes he wrote on the chalkboard; they seemed to mean
nothing.Mr. Michael, my math teacher in
8th grade, wrote sayings on the board that always seemed so random,
and yet he had intent behind all of them.Tuesday I was reminded of one, “I
hate scrapingmy windshield.”It was simple and to the point, and yet to an
8th grader, it had little or no meaning unless you were your
parents’ slave scraping their windshield for them.I left my boys in the house on Tuesday
morning as I headed out to use my Number
1 Dad Scraper to scrape my windshield.It honestly works surprisingly well for the 50 cents Gavin spent on it. Trust me, I don’t like scraping my windshield,
but I understand what is necessary to fulfill my duty as husband, father, and
pastor.

Mr. Michael’s sayings may have been
odd, but I certainly remember them.I
also remember some of his specific examples about math.I am not sure if he was the one who was
responsible for my love of math.But
even with no driving experience, I understood that driving over the speed limit
only got you to your destination a little bit faster unless you were going a
crazy amount over the limit, and maintaining that speed for a long
distance.His examples were clear-cut
and to the point, which helped me to learn some great concepts about math.These are the things I like about math:the exact nature of it, and the expectation
that there would be a solution.

The world had been waiting for a
solution for the problem with sin for a long time.Certainly, like us, people thought they had
found the solution in just doing things better.The problem, of course, is that eventually there is failure. All too often I have examined my life with my
failures and mistakes, and was disappointed.The solution was not something I could find in myself.Unlike math, this problem is unsolvable by
our own human nature.

This weekend we start talking about the
beginning of Jesus’ ministry. Through His
fulfillment of the prophecy, He came to accomplish some challenging things. Some “scrapping
the windshield” - like activities
that would lead Him to the end result of fulfilling His role as our Savior and
our God. I am not going to say Jesus
hated doing these things, but I am sure that because He was also true man, they
were still challenging to Him. Every
piece of Jesus’ ministry was an integral part of the plan God had for us to be
rescued. The Isaiah passage connects
with the Matthew passage, and they illustrate how the prophecy came before, and
was fulfilled in Jesus. No longer do we
just talk about Jesus being a baby and coming here, but we also discuss what it
means that He is truly here doing the work of salvation. This weekend we begin that discussion, and dig
into some of the first pieces of Jesus’ ministry as we discover what they meant
for the whole picture of salvation, and what they mean for us today.

Thursday, January 16, 2014

During
my elementary school career, I was the testing mark for my family as far as
teachers go.Naturally I was always the
one who had the first experience, since I was the first-born.At the completion of each school year, my mom
would decide whether or not to request that particular teacher for the next
child.Now my mom is a nice lady, but
that was an intense amount of scrutiny for a teacher to go through to see if
she was an appropriate fit for the next child.Yes, I said she because I did
not have a single male teacher until middle school.Honestly, it still is amazing to me that I
made it through all those grades without having a male teacher.

As a
kid I just learned from each teacher, and expected them to be there every day. I was frustrated on the days they missed. That just might have been my systematic way of
thinking, and when you messed with my system I didn’t like it. Yes, I am still like that today; maybe it
wasn’t only my mom who had expectations! When you marry a teacher, you get a whole new
understanding of her role as you listen to the stories about each kid day in
and day out. It made me aware that even
though I had had a lot of exposure with teachers, I never realized that they
had a life too. Teachers are so
sacrificial and loving; it is amazing to watch them learn about all the children
and care for them.

This
weekend we celebrate our association with Christ Community Lutheran School. We rejoice that these teachers take time to
learn from Jesus, and then portray that love to each student. Christ set that sacrificial example, and the
teachers certainly follow His lead as they care for their students. We also celebrate the installation of Samuel
Fishburn, 3rd grade teacher at CCLS. What an amazing blessing to have a male
teacher loving those little people. I
certainly loved my teachers but it would have been a nice change of pace to
have a cool male role model in the midst of all of my remarkable female
teachers.

Today
our lessons naturally lead us to focus on the love of God, but also on the
sacrifice He made as the Lamb of God. John
explains that in our lesson because the world at that time was beginning to
prepare for the greatest teacher ever. Jesus
set a great example of how to love others. CCLS teachers, as well as our CECE teachers, have
a great way of modeling the love of Jesus. We celebrate His love, and pray that we also
can demonstrate that deep level of sacrifice and love for God’s people.

Thursday, January 9, 2014

There
is a picture that exists with all four of the Karl William Hankes.I was just a baby at the time, and I think it
was my great grandpa who was holding me.My dad was always proud of that picture.I was wearing some ridiculous velour baby outfit.While I understand the family value of the
picture, I felt like we treasured it a little too much.After all three of them had passed on,
leaving only me, someone brought me that picture.I think it was my aunt or my uncle.Honestly, I don’t see any more importance in
my name versus my brother’s and sisters’. Karl, to me, just becomes the annoyance of
having to clarify at doctor offices, billing companies and other places that I
go by Will.What’s the value of an
unused name?

As we began to name our kids, I was
praying that God would give me a girl first so I would not even have to debate having
to choose Karl William Hanke V.And
knowing that my dad wanted to jump ahead to five because he thought there was
something cool about it, put a unique pressure on me.Yet, it forced Mindy and me to really
evaluate the naming process.Jacob Karl’s
naming came with such a deep thought process that involved my love for the
scriptural Jacob, while still keeping a legacy of Karls with a K.Abigail Miriam beautifully combines the names
of both our mothers into one little lady’s name. One day I can imagine the conversations that
will happen since girls seem to care about things like the reason behind the
choice of a name. I am sure Abby will
want to understand the uniqueness of how she was named after both of her
grandmas. I have to admit Miriam was
never a name I called anyone—obviously, because it belonged to my mom. So I never imagined naming my daughter that,
but it’s amazing how you process things differently when you try to choose a
name for your child.One of the
intriguing parts of this week’s lesson is the fact that the name Jesus is never spoken until His baptism.
The angel’s instruction was to call him Jesus, but Matthew constantly refers to
him as the child. Honestly, I am not sure what to make of that. These are the times I wish Matthew were around
to ask him why he chose to do that. This
does not seem to be coincidental; this had to be his full intention. So what is Scripture trying to teach us?

During the massive snow this past
week, we found Abby singing into one of our baptismal candles. Her personality begins to take on new elements
every day. I can’t stop but think about
all the things to tell Abby about her baptism. It was the day her dad was installed at Mt.
Calvary, and a day when God brought us into a new part of His people and His
family.

The thing about names is, they
originate outside of our own family. Often they are from a place that brings us
back to our beginnings. Jesus defines us
as a part of His family. It was God’s
plan to bring His family back together from the darkness in which they found
themselves. It was continually being
destroyed by fights, selfishness, and sin. The process of restoring God’s family began at
Jesus’ baptism. It revealed what it was
going to take to give us back the family name. It was going to take Jesus humbling himself. John was right! Jesus shouldn’t baptize him, but what it was
going to take to get us in God’s family was this humble act of Jesus, which
illustrated the power of God’s Son coming to rescue us.

My favorite part of a baptism ceremony is when
I get to hold the baby up and let people praise God for His work, and to
celebrate that baby coming into God’s family. Jesus came to be with us. He came to restore us and to bring his family
back together.That is the power of His
name and that is what we will discuss this weekend!